Advocacy
CalAnimals recognizes that playing an active role in Sacramento is a vital part of ensuring the welfare of California's animals and the communities we serve. Since 2009, we have retained a professional legislative advocate who works on behalf of our members to ensure that we have a voice in legislation affecting animal shelters as well as our state's animals, whether stray, homeless, or abused animals.
In addition to sponsoring legislation creating substantive protections for animals, such as bills that banned the roadside sales of animals, established minimum standards for pet boarding facilities, placed restrictions on the ability of flea markets to allow sales of animals, and established a voluntary tax checkoff to benefit homeless and abused animals, CalAnimals actively supports sensible animal-related legislation. In addition, CalAnimals works with sponsors and legislators to improve animal-related bills and actively opposes bills that are not in the best interests of California's animals and the communities we serve.
Legislation to Watch in 2024
AB 1983 Income taxes: Dog and Cat Euthanasia Prevention Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund
SUPPORT
This bill would allow an individual to designate on their tax return that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the Dog and Cat Euthanasia Prevention Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, which would be created by this bill. The bill would prohibit a voluntary contribution designation for the Dog and Cat Euthanasia Prevention Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund from being added on the tax return until another voluntary contribution designation is removed or a space is available.
AB 1988 Stray Animals: Availability for Adoption or Release
SUPPORT
Bill Text - AB-1988 Stray animals: availability for adoption or release. (ca.gov)
The bill would authorize a puppy or kitten relinquished to a public or private shelter by the purported owner, or brought in by any other person with authority to relinquish it, to also be made immediately available for release to a nonprofit organization, animal rescue organization, or adoption organization if requested by the organization.
AB 2012 Rabies Control Data
SUPPORT
Bill Text - AB-2012 Rabies control data. (ca.gov)
This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to collect certain rabies control program data from each city, city and county, or county, as outlined. The bill would authorize the department to contract out this requirement to a California accredited veterinary school.
AB 2133 Veterinary Medicine: Registered Veterinary Technicians
Bill Text - AB-2133 Veterinary medicine: registered veterinary technicians. (ca.gov)
This bill would authorize a registered veterinarian technician to perform neuter surgery on a male domestic cat under the direct supervision of a California-licensed veterinarian, as specified.
AB 2216 Tenancy: Common Household Pets
SUPPORT
Bill Text - AB-2216 Tenancy: common household pets. (ca.gov)
This bill would prohibit a landlord, before the landlord has accepted a prospective tenant’s application for a dwelling unit, from asking the prospective tenant or otherwise inquiring into whether the prospective tenant plans to own or otherwise maintain a common household pet in the tenant’s dwelling unit. The bill would require a prospective tenant, no later than 72 hours before entering into a rental agreement, to inform the landlord if the prospective tenant plans to own or otherwise maintain a common household pet.
AB 2248 Contracts: Sales of Dogs and Cats
Bill Text - AB-2248 Contracts: sales of dogs and cats.
This bill would provide that a contract entered into on or after January 1, 2025, to transfer ownership of a dog or cat is void as against public policy if the buyer is in California, the contract requires a nonrefundable deposit, and the contract does not identify the original source of the dog or cat, including, but not limited to, the breeder. The bill would require, if money has been exchanged pursuant to a contract that is void pursuant to these provisions, the seller to refund the money to the buyer within 30 days of receiving notice that the contract is void.
AB 2265 Public Animal Shelters
OPPOSE
*** Please Read our Coalition Letter ***
Bill Text - AB-2265 Animals: spaying, neutering, and euthanasia. (ca.gov)
This bill requires spaying and neutering of animals in foster care within a specified period of time, significantly increased spay/neuter deposits, internet posting and physical signage on animals scheduled for euthanasia, and public notice of any policy, practice, or protocol that raises the potential for conflict with any aspect of the Hayden Law.
AB 2425 Adoptable Animals
SUPPORT
Bill Text - AB-2425 Adoptable animals. (ca.gov)
This bill would require an animal shelter, as defined, to provide public notice on its internet website or a third-party internet website regarding the adoption availability of any animal, except as provided. The bill would also require the Department of Food and Agriculture to conduct a study on certain topics, including, among other topics, the overcrowding of California’s animal shelters, and, on or before January 1, 2027, to submit a report on that study to the Legislature, as provided. This bill will require breeders to microchip, vaccinate, and health check their animals.
AB 2954 Animals at Large: Civil Penalties
SUPPORT
Bill Text - AB-2954 Cats: declawing procedures: prohibition.
Existing law prohibits a person from performing, or otherwise procuring or arranging for the performance of, surgical claw removal, declawing, an onychectomy, or a tendonectomy on any cat that is a member of an exotic or native wild cat species, and prohibits a person from otherwise altering such a cat’s toes, claws, or paws to prevent the normal function of the cat’s toes, claws, or paws, except solely for a therapeutic purpose. This bill would prohibit a person from performing surgical claw removal, declawing, or a tendonectomy on any cat or otherwise altering a cat’s toes, claws, or paws to prevent or impair the normal function of the cat’s toes, claws, or paws, except for a therapeutic purpose.
AB 2964 Crimes: Animal Cruelty (Rooster limits)
SUPPORT
Bill Text - AB-2964 Crimes: animal cruelty. (ca.gov)
This bill would make the possession of a specified number of roosters, as defined, prima facie evidence of a violation of that crime, subject to specified exceptions. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
AB 3053 State-Supported Fairs: Exhibits: Regulations
SUPPORT
Bill Text - AB-3053 State-supported fairs: exhibits: regulations. (ca.gov)
The bill would require those regulations to include a requirement that all junior exhibit entries be received only with the approval of a parent or guardian and to authorize those entries to be withdrawn at the request of the parent or guardian at any time before offsite transport, as specified. The bill would also require those regulations to include a provision that, in the case of a junior livestock exhibit, any bidder may elect for live animal pickup, regardless of any characterization as a terminal sale.
SB 902 Firearms: Public Safety
Bill Text - SB-902 Firearms: public safety. (ca.gov)
Existing law, with certain exceptions, makes it a crime to maliciously and intentionally maim, mutilate, torture, wound, or kill a living animal. Existing law, with additional exceptions, makes it a crime to, among other things, overwork, cruelly beat, or overload an animal.
This bill would provide that any person convicted of a misdemeanor violation of the above-described crimes, on or after January 1, 2025, may not, within 10 years of the conviction, access a firearm as described above, and makes a violation of that prohibition a crime.
SB 921 Animal Welfare
OPPOSE
Bill Text - SB-921 Animal welfare. (ca.gov)
The bill would make it a crime for a person to maliciously and intentionally mistreat any animal even if the mistreatment does not cause physical injury.
SB 922 Animal Cruelty
Bill Text - SB-922 Animal cruelty. (ca.gov)
This bill would expand that requirement to require a person convicted of leaving animal in an unattended motor vehicle to complete counseling, an education program on the dangers of leaving an animal inside of an unattended motor vehicle, or both. The bill would make failure to complete the counseling or education program a misdemeanor.
SB 1217 Pet Insurance
SUPPORT
Bill Text - SB-1217 Pet insurance. (ca.gov)
Existing law defines various terms relating to the regulation of pet insurance.
This bill would update existing definitions and define additional terms, including “orthopedic,” “producer,” and “renewal.”
SB 1233 University of California: Vet Med: Spay and Neuter Techniques
SUPPORT
Bill Text - SB-1233 University of California: veterinary medicine: spay and neuter techniques.
This bill would request that the Regents of the University of California jointly develop with the governing body of the Western University of Health Sciences standards and guidelines for high-quality, high-volume spay and neuter surgical techniques and jointly implement the developed standards and guidelines in elective coursework for veterinary medicine programs at the University of California, Davis, and the Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine, and a high-quality, high-volume spay and neuter certification program to be made available to licensed veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians.
SB 1358 Rabies Control Data
Bill Text - SB-1358 Rabies control data. (ca.gov)
This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to collect certain rabies control program data from each city, city and county, or county, as outlined. By increasing the data collected from each city, city and county, and county, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.
SB 1459 Animal Shelters: Veterinarians
Bill Text - SB-1459 Animal shelters: veterinarians. (ca.gov)
This bill requires the public shelters located in a county greater than 400,000 to post data on their websites. This bill also seeks to clarify law explicitly permitting community cat programs
SB 1478 Veterinary Medicine: RVT in Shelters
Bill Text - SB-1478 Veterinary medicine: registered veterinary technicians. (ca.gov)
This bill would require the order established by the veterinarian that authorizes a registered veterinary technician to perform animal health care services, as described, to include specified minimum information. The bill would require the order to include, among other things, information pertaining to time periods by which an impounded animal is required to be assessed at intake and monitored while in the custody of an agency, protocols to address the treatment of common medical conditions encountered in impounded animals, and communication requirements between the registered veterinary technician and the supervising veterinarian.
Legislation Passed in 2023
Effective January 1, 2024
Small Title
AB 781 Emergency Shelters: Persons with Pets
The bill requires a city that has previously adopted an emergency plan designating emergency shelters to update its emergency plan to designate emergency shelters able to accommodate persons with pets on or before July 1, 2024. The bill requires an emergency shelter designated as able to accommodate persons with pets to be in compliance with safety procedures regarding the sheltering of pets established in the component of the state and local emergency plan and applicable disaster assistance policies and procedures of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This bill requires that whenever a city or county designates an emergency shelter, cooling center, or warming center that it also designate an emergency shelter, cooling center, or warming center, as applicable, that can accommodate persons with pets.
Small Title
AB 829 Crime: Animal Abuse
This bill deletes the requirement that a defendant granted probation complete counseling and, instead, requires the court to order a defendant convicted of specified offenses, including the above-described offense, against animals and granted probation to successfully complete counseling designed to evaluate and treat behavior or conduct disorders.
Small Title
AB 1399 Veterinary Telemedicine
This bill authorizes a licensee to practice veterinary telemedicine, as defined. The bill requires a veterinarian who practices veterinary telemedicine, among other things, to employ sound professional judgment to determine whether using veterinary telemedicine is an appropriate method for delivering medical advice or treatment to the patient, provide quality of care consistent with prevailing veterinary medical practice, and be able to refer the client to a veterinarian who may be able to see the patient in person upon the request of the client. The bill also defines the term “client” for purposes of the act and make other conforming changes.
Small Title
SB 371 Undomesticated Burros
This bill authorizes a nonprofit that contracts with a county to provide services to undomesticated burros to remove an undomesticated burro that strays onto private land, to remove an undomesticated burro that strays onto a public roadway, and to provide medical care or treatment to an undomesticated burro that is seriously ill or injured, as provided.
Small Title
SB 669 Veterinary Client Patient Relationships
This bill authorizes a veterinarian, for the purpose of permitting a registered veterinary technician to administer to an animal patient preventive or prophylactic vaccines or medications for the control or eradication of an apparent or anticipated internal or external parasite, to establish a veterinarian-client-patient relationship by satisfying other specified criteria.